Dreams vs Nightmares
by drey'auc475
Summary: Sheppard experiences some strange events as a Dart flies over the city. Chap has been updated. Previously 'Nightmares vs. Dreams'. WIP!
1. Dreams

**Title:** Dreams Vs. Nightmares  
**Author:** Drey'auc475  
**STARGATE: ATLATIS  
****Rating:** T for some language  
**Spoilers:** none  
**Genre: **general  
**Setting/Season:** near beginning of season two  
**Summary:** Sheppard experiences some strange events as a Dart flies over the city.  
**A/N: **This is going to be a long story (and will go on for a long time, and probably cross over to _SG-1_), and this will probably be the longest chapter of them all. There will be huge/semi huge jumps in time with this story, but I will let you know. Enjoy!

-----Prologue-----  
_A dark room; messy, clothes and other items strewn about, as though a tornado had hit. Soft music plays from the speakers of the computer on a simple desk, a screensaver of cheerful and happy pictures scrolls across the screen. _

_A moan comes from the bed that's tucked into the corner of the room. On it lays a teenage girl, softly illuminated by the light of the computer. She's fully dressed and lying on her stomach on top of the bed covers, as though she simply fell asleep while attempting to reach something from behind the bed-head. _

_The girl moans again and rolls onto her side, dragging the pillow with her and hugging it to her chest. _

_Suddenly she kicks out in her sleep and mutters something that is barely audible. She turns in her sleep again, and the pillow is abandoned and falls to the floor. She rolls to her other side and kicks out again. _

_Suddenly she's on her back, calling again to the darkness. 'No!' she cries. She tosses and turns for another moment and then she lies on her back again. _

_The girl sits up all of a sudden, and screams out 'Mum, NO!' and the girl is awake. She sits there in the semi-darkness, panting in shock. Sweat gleams on her face and her t-shirt is sticking to her back. She sits there as though waiting for someone. She strains to hear sounds of movement from outside her room, but the house is empty, as it has been for the last month and a half. _

_She takes a couple of shuddering breaths to calm herself. After three minutes and twenty-three seconds she moves, swinging her feet over the side of the bed, and standing on shaky legs. Slowly she makes her way to the door through a path that has been made on the floor through the mess around the room. She makes it out into the hall and is blinded by the lights she forgot to turn off. Somewhere from the living room, a clock is ringing out the hour: 11 o'clock. _

_The girl makes her way to the bathroom. She washes her face under the cold faucet and then turns the shower on. She pulls her clothes off and throws them into the overflowing laundry basket. She steps into the shower in a semi-awake state and adjusts the water. She stands under the spray for fifteen minutes, unmoving. Her tears mingle with the water that's running into her eyes. _

_As she lets the water attempt to sooth her body, she plays the nightmare in her head; but all she can remember this time is screeching breaks, blearing horns, blinding lights and a blood-curdling scream. She doesn't have to remember any more, she knows the dream already; she's lived it. _

_The water runs over skin that is dented and defaced by scars. A spider-web of white scar tissue fans out from her left elbow and runs out towards her hand. Across her back, large scars cross her left shoulder blade. A larger scar, like a huge welt, runs from her right collar bone diagonally down her chest._

_Finally she moves and turns off the water. She steps out of the shower and dries herself on a towel from the towel rack. Wrapping the towel around her, she heads back to her room, switching off the lights as she goes. _

_She steps in front of her wardrobe and lets the towel fall. She dresses herself slowly, underwear, a t-shirt and a pair of satin boxer shorts. She doesn't bother turning the computer off, but picks up the pillow and crawls back into bed, under the covers this time. _

_She looks at the clock. 11:24 pm. She rolls onto her side and faces the wall, listening to the music coming from the computer. She sees the blinding lights again and hears the screeching tires as she falls to sleep._

* * *

John Sheppard ran; he ran his heart out. All he could concentrate on was the fact that there was a Wraith Dart headed directly for the city. He had been at the furthest reaches of the city, taking a run in an area they hadn't explored fully yet. The nearest transporter hadn't worked due to the damage they had sustained from the siege, so he had had to double back about two miles.

He could hear his feet pounding on the floor of the corridor as he headed for the transporter. Rodney had radioed in to tell him that they had picked up a dart headed their way about ten minutes ago. They hadn't been able to see it because of some recent solar activity from the system's sun, and it had knocked out the long-range sensors.

The colonel's lungs burned, but he didn't dare slow. As he legged it for the Control Tower, John began to get that sinking feeling. If the dart got away then they would know that Atlantis hadn't been destroyed.

It was nearing midday, and the sweat poured off John's face as he swung his water bottle beside him. The Atlantian version of air-conditioning wasn't functioning in this part of the city and it was _damn_ hot inside.

As he neared the transporter, John's legs started to burn. He could hear his ragged breaths echoing around him.

John heard his watch beep midday over the pounding of the blood in his ears. It had been exactly twelve minutes since Rodney had radioed in.

Something was in front of him, something shimmering blue and silver. It seemed to be strung across the narrow hallway that he was headed down. Thinking that it was simply an illusion projected by the Wraith, he headed straight for it.

John thought he heard Elizabeth call his name over the radio, as he passed through the illusion.

Suddenly, he felt as though he had missed a step going down. But that didn't make sense, the hall way was flat, and he knew it. He had then expected to fall straight on his face, but the last thing John remembered was the sensation of falling…

* * *

Rahni fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes. She felt like crap. The shower did nothing to help her. She vaguely remembered falling asleep to the Dream again.

After what seemed like only seconds, she was woken again by a huge weight landing heavily on her bed. She sat up quickly to see a mop of black hair, wide hazel eyes, and the flash of a gun before the… creature rolled off the bed and onto the tiled floor. She heard a crack and winced. It sounded like the… thing's… something had connected with something hard. She crawled forwards to see what had happened.

It was a man that had landed on her bed. He was curled on the floor next to her computer chair. The light from the computer threw shadows onto his face.

Rahni looked up to where he seemed to have come from and saw a shimmering field above her head. As she watched it, it shrank and disappeared. Subconsciously, she looked at the clock. 12:01 am.

She reached into her bookcase and found her torch. She turned it on and shone it into the man's face – and almost dropped it. Fumbling with the torch, her heart began beating very fast.

_This is _SO_ not possible!_ she thought. She shook her head and shone the torch into the man's face again. This time she kept it there for a moment. She dropped the torch on the bed next to her and rubbed her eyes. Seeing the flashes of light again, she threw back the covers and reached for the torch again. She climbed out of bed and went to kneel next to the man. Biting her bottom lip, she shone the torch full into his face again.

The man groaned and shut his eyes tightly against the light. Rahni quickly flicked it down. She didn't want to wake him.

_What now?_ She chewed her lip and sat back on her hunches. She looked around her small bedroom. What was she going to do with him? She tapped her knee as she though.

She stood up and crouched next to him and grabbed his arm above the elbow, pulling him out from under the desk. She hooked her arms under his armpits and dragged him onto the thick rug near her bed. She could smell him, aftershave and sweat. It was everything she dreamed of. And more…

She lay him down and grabbed her pillow. Rahni sat down near his head. She placed the pillow on her knees and then gently moved his head onto the pillow. She pulled the blanket down from the bed and draped it over her shoulders, letting the rest trail over the man's chest.

Before Rahni went to sleep, she reached under the blanket and found the gun in its holster attached to his right thigh. She pulled it out and placed it on the bed next to her head.

Finally Rahni leaned her head back on the bed and fell into an uncomfotable sleep that was filled with different dreams of hazel eyes, blue portals and the sounds of gun fire.

* * *

The next thing he knew, John was waking up in a dark room. Expecting to find himself in the Infirmary, he was slightly surprised to _not_ hear the beeping of machines and monitors.

Opening his right eye slowly, he looked to his left, where Carson, Elizabeth or Rodney usually stood if he was in the Infirmary, but the space was unoccupied. He opened both his eyes and frowned.

The room he was in seemed dark, and he seemed to be getting a mouse's perspective of everything.

John moved his head to the left to see more of where he was, and was rewarded with a sharp pain. He lifted his hand to rub the back of his head and his fingers brushed something that felt soft and smooth.

Placing his hand on the smooth surface, John began to move his hand north.

His pillow stirred and moved.

John's hand stopped it's wondering. He pulled it away and sat bolt upright, spinning around to see a girl about the age of eighteen sitting with her back to a bed and a red blanket draped over her shoulders struggling to stand, trying to kick a pillow away at the same time.

John's head began to reel and he began to feel faint. His head hurt terribly. He began to stand, but a wave of dizziness overcame him, and he sank to his knees again and fell onto his side. The last thing he remembered was the girl reaching for him and a blinding blow to his head.

* * *

John began to regain his senses. His surroundings seemed to have changed. The room he was in was flooded with late-afternoon light and he heard the hum of a machine. Truly thinking he would actually see Carson standing next to him this time and that it had all been some insane dream, he turned to his left and opened his eyes.

There was a person occupying the space next to him, but it wasn't Carson or Elizabeth. This was somewhat disappointing.

There instead was the same girl from before. She was asleep next to him, sitting on the floor, her head in her arms on the bed near John's head.

She had very dark, brown hair and slightly browned skin. Her hair seemed damp and her eyes were red-rimmed as though she had been crying. John noticed that he was on the bed this time, instead of the floor so it must have taken her a great effort to get him up here – John wasn't exactly the lightest person in the world. He couldn't quite remember who had told him that…

John sat up and looked around him. His head ached but he chose to ignore it. There was a bookcase next to the bed filled with heaps and heaps of books. On top of that, there were several CD cases, and a small Bonsai-looking plant. It seemed to be dead.

A CD player sat in the corner looking dusty and unused. The humming sound was coming from a computer near the door. It sat on a grey hardwood desk accompanied by a red leather computer chair. On the other side of the door was a built-in wardrobe, the doors plastered in pictures of bands and actors he didn't know. Now that he could see the rest of the room, all the walls were covered in posters. On the cupboards above the built-ins, a green and blue striped tie hung from the door handle.

A curtain blew in his face, and he spluttered as he tried to push it away. He managed to push the curtain away making the wooden rings at the top clatter together.

The sound made his head hurt. Clutching a hand to his forehead he turned to the window.

"What the fuck!"

Beyond the window, the view was not sea and city, like he had become accustomed to seeing out his window. Beyond was grass and trees, and most of all, road. He watched as a normal Earth motor-vehicle drove passed the driveway that led to a carport on the side of the house.

His jaw dropped as he saw a child ride on a bike along the footpath across the road. The girl's next-door neighbour was out watering the garden. A dog barked down the road, and a cat streaked up a tree.

This was definitely _NOT_ Atlantis.

* * *

Rahni sat up and stretched, trying to get the knots in her back out. _That's it_, she thought.He_ sleeps on the floor from now on_.

She looked around to see the man who had fallen through her bedroom roof sitting up staring out the window with a look of utter disbelief on his face. She winced.

She reached forwards and laid a hand softly on his shoulder. He jumped and swung round to face her. She shrank back and held her hands up in front of her. He had a look of great confusion on his face and Rahni couldn't help but smirk to herself.

His confusion turned to a frown. "What?" he croaked, then cleared his throat

Rahni shrugged and shook her head at the same time. Still the man frowned at her.

She took a deep breath and stood, pulling at her t-shirt. She stretched out her hand to him. "I'm Arahnia Peters," she said. "But you can call me 'Rahni'."

The man looked at her puzzled. She had a different accent, one that he couldn't quite place; defiantly not American. He stared at her out stretched hand for a moment, and then extended his own.

"Major John Sheppard."

Rahni became tight-lipped and shook his hand. She pulled away quickly. She walked to the door and turned a switch on the wall. The ceiling fan began to spin.

* * *

John looked from Rahni's back to the scene outside the window. Rahni turned back towards him, noticing the direction of his gaze. She went over to the computer chair and sat in it, facing him. He continued to look back and forth. Rahni took a deep breath before talking.

"Your wondering why the view outside isn't Atlantis, aren't you?" she asked.

John stopped looking back and forth and focused his gaze on the girl. She gave him a small smile.

"Now, you're probably wondering how I knew about Atlantis. No, I don't read minds, I… just… know… Well, it's all very, very complicated, but, um, all I know right now is that you fell from a shimmering-blue portal in my ceiling at midnight last night. Don't ask me how to get you back, because I know about as much about this as you do. Well, maybe a little more…

"Well, er, I guess I better explain where you are –"

"Yes, please do," John said icily, managing to find his voice again after the bomb-shell the kid had dropped. Rahni faltered a little at his cold tone, but continued anyway.

"OK. You are in a small town called Wanneroo, in Queensland, Australia – that big ol' island continent in the South Pacific Ocean. This is my… parents… house."

John listened to her with his head cocked to one side. He paused for a moment after she had finished to take it all in.

"Australia?" he asked. John began to recognise her accent. "As in… Earth?"

Rahni nodded somewhat resigned.

"Yeah. Look, how about some breakfast?"

John looked at the kid, looked out the window and raised an eyebrow.

"It's late afternoon," he stated.

"Well, dinner then?"

At the mention of food, John's stomach grumbled. He did feel really hungry. John nodded and made to get off the bed, but swooned as his head began to pound.

Rahni raised her hands to steady him.

"How about some Panadol first?"

John sat on the edge of the bed as the girl rushed out of the room and returned with a bottle of water and a few tablets. She sat on the bed next to him and handed them to him. He swallowed the pills straight away and then drank half the water.

Wiping his hand across his mouth he muttered his thanks. Rahni smiled at him and got up and began to pace the room. Something came to John.

"You mentioned something about Atlantis?"

The girl stopped mid-stride and slowly turned to him.

"You're wondering how I know?"

John nodded and clutched his head. Rahni began her pacing again.

"Well," she began, "first of all, I know because the whole thing is almost public knowledge. The whole 'Stargate' thing. The reason for that is that…"

Rahni paused here, unsure of how to continue. John looked at her impatiently. She was reminded of Jack O'Neill. Shaking her head, Rahni took a deep breath and continued.

"The reason it's public knowledge is that…well, it's a TV program. You know, a TV show. Like _Wormhole X-Tream_. A fantasy. Well, obviously not so much of a fantasy _now_, but enough of one to have its own fan club. I mean, the whole Stargate idea is legendary to the Sci-fi community! You, Weir, McKay, O'Neill, Carter – you're all heroes to us, people to idolise! But it's all fantasy. The Stargate doesn't exist here! It never did! There is no Stargate Command under Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. There is no Atlantis Expedition as far as I know, and there seems to be no such thing as the Ancients or the Goa'uld. I don't really think that there's an Ancient Outpost fifty miles outside of McMurdo, or a great hunk of spaceship called the _Daedalus_ full of alien toys.

"Now, as far as I can tell, you came here from a parallel universe, one that actually has a Stargate in it, and has all the really cool stuff I just mentioned. But for now, I have no idea as to how to get you back through that portal."

Rahni took a breath and waited for the barrage of questions to follow her short outburst. In truth, she was jealous. Jealous of John Sheppard, the most gorgeous hunk of spunk to ever go through the Stargate! Here he was, sitting on her bed, dressed in only a black t-shirt and sweat pants. His holster and his sidearm hung over the end of the bed and his joggers sat beside him, on the floor. She had removed them before she had hauled him onto her bed.

Before he could question her, John's stomach grumbled loudly again. John swore he thought he heard it talk. Rahni made a face.

"How about some food?"

* * *

John found himself half an hour later sitting in front of a steaming hot meal of Mongolian Lamb and Stir fry. John could not believe his eyes. He hadn't had Chinese food for practically a whole year now. It was the first thing that he was planning to do once he got back to Earth. John _LOVED_ Chinese food. His tastebuds were having a field day in his mouth and his stomach was almost chewing his insides out.

"Dig in," Rahni encouraged seeing the look of desire of his face.

John didn't need asking twice. He took the plate of rice that Rahni passed him and dished out lamb and veggies from the take away containers.

He sat there for a moment, savouring the smell of the sauces that were enhanced by the steam rising beneath his nose.

Rahni smiled to her self. She took a small amount of rice from the pot in front of her as John began to shovel the food into his mouth, slowing only to chew his food slightly.

As she watched John eat, Rahni was forcibly reminded of her older brother. A vision of her and her family eating at that very table rose in her mind and Rahni immediately lost her appetite. Focusing on the man in front of her, she tried to push the image from her mind.

John knew had bad eating habits, even at the best of times. He looked up in time to see Rahni lay her fork down next to her plate. He stopped shovelling food and tried to swallow.

Now that John had the time, he took in the girl's appearance. She seemed sad as he had noticed before, but she also seemed thin and unhealthy, like she was undernourished. Noticing how she placed her fork down, John realised that she mustn't be eating right.

John studied her face. She seemed to have big dark circles under her eyes, and they held far too many wrinkles for someone of her age.

She smiled at him from across the table and John smiled back. She passed him another bottle of water.

"Where are your folks?" he asked.

Rahni pursed her lips and looked down at her plate. "Out," was all she said in reply.

John sensed that there was more to it but he let it slide. He wasn't sure if her trusted this girl entirely yet.

"Look," Rahni said, "I know this is all a lot to take in, but it's all true. I didn't even think that these sorts of things happened to people like me, but… I guess I was wrong."

Rahni looked down again and scratched her upper arm, absently pushing the sleeve of her t-shirt up with her right hand. John looked at her hand and saw a white scar crossing the back of her palm from her wrist to the little finger. Her hand was rubbing her shoulder and John saw that her elbow and upper arm were laced with tiny scars, some of the bigger ones creating a spider web effect. _She looks like she put her arm through a window_, John thought.

Rahni caught his gaze and pulled her sleeve back down. He didn't need to know about her scars yet.

John looked back at his food and began to eat again, somewhat slower than before.

"So," he began. "Tell me more about this…TV show?"

"Ah, well, you know most of it already. There's this one show called _Stargate: Atlantis_ and it's mostly about you guys in the Pegasus Galaxy. It mainly follows the major missions and happenings on Atlantis. Also stuff that isn't really included in the mission files.

"There's another one, _Stargate: SG-1_, which started before the Atlantis mission, at the SGC. Er, nine years it's been running. I didn't even think that that was even real, but it must be, or there wouldn't be an Atlantis expedition…" Rahni petered out with her explanation after that.

John just slowly chewed on his food as he mulled over what Rahni had told him.

Rahni pushed on and told John about all the things she knew that no ordinary civilian would. She told him about what had happened to Ford after the siege on Atlantis, she told of Teyla's ability to connect to the Wraith because she had Wraith DNA. She also told John of what McKay had been doing on Earth before he went to the Pegasus Galaxy.

"Woah, woah, woah," John said, dropping his fork. "That's all top secret intel, how the hell can you know about it at all? I didn't even know that. What are you? CIA?"

Rahni raised her eyebrows. "What!" she exclaimed. "I just told you. Because of a TV show!"

Something snapped in Rahni, something that had been building up over the last month. Suddenly she was yelling at John.

"You don't have to believe me, Sheppard! All I'm asking is that you listen to my side of the story – and you never know, I might actually have something interesting to say! It could be the difference of weather or not you get home!"

And with that, Rahni got up and left the table. John watched her as she walked down the hall to her bedroom and heard the door slam.

John sat at the table and mentally kicked himself for going off like that. He had no right to question her. She had been kind and generous, looking for nothing in return, and he had attacked her on what she was trying to tell him.

John abandoned the food, and jumped up from the table and went and knocked on Rahni's door. There was no answer.

"Arahnia?" he called knocking on the door again. He heard nothing.

John bit his bottom lip and pushed the door open.

Rahni was sitting on the bed, clutching her pillow across her chest and clinging to a silver locket. She had the locket open in her hand and was staring at the contents. She looked as though she was crying.

John stood at the doorway, unsure on how to proceed. If only Elizabeth were here, she'd know how to deal with the situation. But then, Elizabeth would have never got herself in to this situation. Being the diplomat that she was, Elizabeth always knew what to do. She always made the right decisions that led to the right…situation.

John sighed and went and stood near the bookcase. He looked at Rahni. She still stared at the locket.

"Who's that?" John asked. He could see a picture of a red-haired woman in the locket.

"My mum," Rahni stated. She sniffled.

John felt stupid, but he pressed on anyway. He could only guess what had happened to this girl; it had to be something pretty awful.

"Look, I'm sorry for what I said before. I was…outta line."

Rahni looked up at him. Her eyes were still wet and red.

John knelt down in front of the girl and wiped a tear off her cheek.

"See, the thing is, I…really wanna go home. But I can't do it by myself. Please… will you help me?"

Rahni gave him a watery smile. John smiled back.

* * *

I know that I've posted this story/chap before but there are now some changes. Please wait for the next chapter.

Next: John chucks a bit of an alcohol-induced tantrum…


	2. Late Night Troubles

**Title:** Dreams vs. Nightmares  
**Author:** Drey'auc475  
**STARGATE: ATLATIS  
****Rating:** T  
**Spoilers:** None for now  
**Genre: **General  
**Setting/Season:** set season two, but in AU.  
**Summary:** Sheppard's having a hard time accepting Rahni's story, and his situation.  
**A/N: **This update has been a long time coming, and sorry to anyone who has been hanging out for it. I've been writing all the other chapters as well. Please R & R!

-----Late Night Troubles-----  
John Sheppard had been living with Rahni for six weeks now. She let him sleep in her parents' double bed in the next room. She had taken it upon herself to find him more clothes and more food. He seemed to only want to sit around and mope until a solution presented itself. Rahni noted how out-of-character it all seemed.

One night, John had become insistent that she was part of some trick thought up by the Genii. He had tried to push past her to go outside, so that he could run. He was convinced that none of it was real at all, that he had somehow been kidnapped and brought back to Earth. Somehow he also seemed to have gotten into his head that this was all a plan of Caldwell's to get his job. Of course this thought had been brought on by an un-recommended amount of cooking brandy he had found in the pantry.

As John tried to push his way out of the door, Rahni tried to grab his arm and stop him. He turned and pushed her in the chest, shouting at her to get off him. Rahni fell backwards and hit her head against the kitchen counter. As John watched her fall, something flashed into his mind.

_FLASHBACK_

_It was John's tenth birthday and he sat playing on the back veranda with a toy aeroplane that Mom had given him. At that moment she had come home from picking up John's sister, Maggie, from day-care. Maggie came rushing around the corner to wish her beloved brother "happy birthday" when she saw the toy plane in his hands. _

_She was five years old and didn't quite know the meaning of "sharing". She ran to John and wanted to play with the toy that John was handling ever-so carefully. _

_John said no, she couldn't play with it. Maggie pouted at him and grabbed the toy. John tried to pull it away from her, but she wouldn't let go. _

"_Maggie, you're breaking it!" John cried, shoving his sister in the chest._

_She was only a five year old girl; she fell back and tripped over a mat on the floor and hit her head against a patio chair. She let go of John's plane and it fell to the floor and broke._

_Dad had seen the whole thing, and rushed over to Maggie. _

_John had been punished and sent to his room without supper. Maggie hadn't been seriously hurt, but John's toy plane was now broken, and no one seemed to care. He had gotten in trouble by Mom and Dad; they said, "What if your sister had been really hurt and had to go to the Hospital?", "It would be your fault!" _

_That night, John had a dream about Maggie. John had accidentally pushed her and she had fallen down a deep hole. John woke up scared and shaking. _

_Creeping out of his room, John went to Maggie's bedroom and checked to see if she was OK. He had spent that night next to Maggie on her bed, with his broken toy plane in his hand. _

_END FLASHBACK_

Seeing Rahni helpless on the floor had woken a feeling of dread inside him that he hadn't felt since his sister had been alive.

John rushed to her. He dropped to her side as she began to pull herself up onto one elbow. Rahni shook her head to clear it. She felt a strong arm raise her from the floor and stand her on her feet. She swooned as her head began to spin.

"Oh, God," John said, suddenly very sober, and sat her down in a chair. She blinked for a moment and looked up at John, confusion showing on her face.

"God," he was saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Are you OK?"

She blinked rapidly to clear her head and nodded. John was clutching her hand and Rahni gripped it tightly.

"I'm so sorry – I don't know what got into me…"

Rahni winced at the smell of alcohol on his breath and struggled to get up.

"I do," she replied.

Using John's hand for support, she got up from the chair then made it over to the kitchen table and grabbed the bottle of brandy that John had been drinking out of. She walked over to the sink and up ended the bottle. She then opened the bin under the sink and dropped the bottle into it. Standing straight again and gripping the counter-top for support, she looked John in the eye. He smiled and nodded at her. She gave him a small smile in return.

* * *

That night, it was John who had the Dream, and not Rahni.

John woke drenched in sweat. Breathing heavily he rubbed his trembling hands over his face, feeling the day-old stubble on his face. He threw off the covers and headed to the bathroom.

On his way back, he passed the door to Rahni's room. John poked his head inside and leant against the doorframe. He watched her sleepfor a while.

When she was sleeping she really did look like his sister. Looking at Rahni was like looking at Maggie returned from the dead. Talking to Rahni was like talking to his sister. She was bright and energetic, with fires in her eyes. She had character, and originality, and was always unpredictable. A lot like John himself.

People used to say that Maggie and John were one in the same. Two bodies for one mind.

Rahni rolled over in her sleep. She looked peaceful. John realised that he hadn't seen her like this before. When she was awake, she had fire in her heart; she was always doing something, going somewhere.

In her sleep, a lot of the time, she was never at peace. Her dreams were haunted by her family's death and the car crash that took them.

John walked silently to her bed. Images of the dream that he had had surfaced in his mind. John pushed back hair from Rahni's eyes and sat next to her. She stirred and rolled onto her other side, facing away from John.

Sighing and unable to stop the images of Rahni's dead body in front of him, John lay on top of the covers and brought his body close to hers. Draping an arm over her sleeping form, he rested his chin on her shoulder. The memory of his sister came to his mind, and he was reminded again how similar Rahni and Maggie were.

Content enough, John closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He could smell her shampoo and the bath gel she used.

Taking his watch off, he set the alarm for 04:00 and set it on the bookcase. Finally he fell asleep.

* * *

Next: a bit of humour (hopefully!I haven't written it yet!)for Sheppard and Rahni as things go wrong at home… 


	3. Luck, Coffee and Sandwiches

**Title:** Dreams vs. Nightmares  
**Author:** Drey'auc475  
**STARGATE: ATLATIS  
****Rating:** K+  
**Spoilers:** none  
**Genre: **general  
**Setting/Season:** Season 2, AU  
**Summary:** Seen through the eyes of a coffee boy, we find out a little more about John's new friend.  
**A/N: **this one skips to before John arrives, then to after. (Briefinterlude before next big chap)

-----Luck, Coffee and Sandwiches-----  
Luke looked up from the sandwich he was making. He saw a girl at the counter ordering a cappuccino and a plate of bacon and eggs. Her eyes never seemed to leave the floor. As she passed the other customers on her way to the back of the tiny café she drew many sympathetic looks. She took a seat with her back facing the door. Luke turned to his boss.

"Hey Jazz, who's that chick in the corner over there?"

Jazz looked up from the cappuccino machine.

"That's Arahnia Peters. Everyone calls her 'Rahni'. She's in here every morning. Always by herself." Jazz gave a sad smile as he sprinkled cocoa onto of the foam. "Got no one to sit with."

Luke had a puzzled expression on his face when Jazz looked up again. He placed the cappuccino on a tray and grabbed another cup.

"A month ago her parents had a car crash," Jazz explained. "Rahni, her parents, and her brother were in the car. Late at night; drunk driver; a high-speed crash. She was the only one to walk away alive."

"God…" Luke said. He cut the sandwich and wrapped it in paper.

Jazz nodded and passed the tray to the waiting customer. "She never leaves the house, only to come here for breakfast, and then goes home again."

"Doesn't she have anyone to talk to? Friends, relatives?"

Jazz shook his head. "She won't talk to anyone about it. Always keeps it bottled up. Any visitors she gets, she turns away pretty quickly."

"Poor kid…" Luke said as he looked at the next order. Jazz nodded his head sadly.

**

* * *

Two Weeks Later…**

Luke looked up as he saw Rahni walk into the café. He hadn't seen her come in for a couple of days and had hoped she was OK.

Luke blinked as he saw a man follow her through the door. At first he thought he was a separate customer, but when they reached the counter she turned to ask him what he wanted.

As he leaned in close to tell her, Luke elbowed Jazz as he walked past.

"Pssst. Look."

Luke pointed at Rahni, who was now laughing at something that the older man had said. "Who do ya think he is?" Luke asked.

Jazz shrugged. "How the hell should I know? Get back to work." And with that he strolled off again to the other end of the counter.

Luke watched as Rahni and her friend took a seat near the front of the café. They raised their glasses of juice in a toast and knocked them together. The man gave the girl a smile that would have melted any normal girl. But Rahni was no normal girl.

Luke smiled to himself and silently wished them better luck for the future.

* * *

up next is the humor chap, forgot that i changed the line up. apologies...


	4. The Cat, The Watch and The Kitchen Sink

**Title:** Dreams vs. Nightmares  
**Author:** Drey'auc475  
**STARGATE: ATLATIS  
****Rating:** K+  
**Spoilers:** SG-1 _Point of View_, Atlantis _Before I Sleep_.  
**Genre: **general  
**Setting/Season:** AU, season 2  
**Summary:** Some revelations and a bit of water…  
**A/N: **is set about a month after the last chapter.

* * *

-----The Cat, the Watch and the Kitchen Sink-----  
It was early one Sunday morning and John was plucking things from the laundry basket and tossing them into the washing machine, just as Rahni had told him to. He got half way down and he became bored with it. Looking cautiously out the laundry door, he reached into the laundry basket and lifted the rest of the clothes out and dumped them into the washing machine.

Satisfied, he reached up and took the washing powder off the shelf and dumped two scoops into the machine. Closing the lid he pressed the START button. Standing back, he smiled proudly to himself as the contraption began to fill with water.

It had been a long time since he had washed his own clothes, seeing as there was an Ancient laundro-mat in Atlantis, and there were staff that were assigned there to clean everyone's clothes. There had also been a laundry service at McMurdo, and on all the other bases that he had been stationed at, so he hadn't really had the need to wash his own clothes.

Now that he was living with Rahni, she had stated categorically that he would have to pull his weight around the place if he wanted to stay. He had been glad to oblige, and had mown the lawn, fixed the clothes line, tuned the car and helped her take the rubbish bin to the dump, since it hadn't been emptied for about two weeks and was on the verge of over-flowing. She had also told him that he would have to cook dinner for both of them two nights a week (something other than pasta and turkey sandwiches), do the washing while she was at work (Rahni had taken up a partnership with the new owner of her dad's old café to pay the bills) and help with the house cleaning on weekends.

Sure, he took shortcuts sometimes, but the jobs were always done when she came home at the end of the day.

His attention turned to the washing machine, which seemed to be making thumping and meowing noises. Intrigued, John lifted the lid to peek in. The machine was now about half full of water. His view was suddenly cut off by a flying mop that was leaping out of the machine, soaking wet. Startled, he jumped backwards and ran into the wall. The… thing… landed on his chest, drenching him, all the while digging its claws into his skin. John cried out in surprise and pain.

With the thing still attached to his chest, he dove out of the laundry and into the hall, running out into the lounge, where Rahni was vacuuming the floor.

She looked up seeing John running into the room. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of him. He now had his hands around the creature trying to pull it off him as it writhed, obviously aggravated by the sound of the vacuum cleaner.

Rahni shut it down instantly and rushed to the linen cupboard and grabbed a towel and rushed back to John. She batted his hands away and wrapped the towel around the creature and gently pried the creature off him.

She wrapped the towel around it and began to rub it dry. It began to calm down as she whispered to it.

John sat down at the dining room table, waiting for his breathing to return to normal. He looked down at his grey t-shirt; the front was soaking wet and had tiny red pin-points growing in size on it, right where the… the… _thing_… had latched onto him.

John looked up at Rahni who was still whispering to the bundle in her arms.

"What the _hell_ is that?"

"This is Belle," she stated simply. Part of the towel fell back and John saw the wet head of a black cat. He had never really been much of a cat person, _especially_ now.

"That…_ cat_… was in the washing machine!" John exclaimed.

"No," Rahni said patiently. "She was in the laundry basket. I _told_ you to empty it one thing at a time. She likes to sleep in there sometimes and buries herself under the clothes."

"Well, I got bored of it once I got to _your_ underwear!"

Rahni rolled her eyes at him and scratched the cat on the head. It began to purr. John scowled at it. He got up and headed to the bathroom and pulled his wet t-shirt over his head and tossed it onto the floor.

Taking a tissue from the box by the basin, he began muttering about 'bloody wet rats'.

* * *

It was just after lunch and John now wore a clean t-shirt to cover up the several band-aids that he had stuck on his chest where the cat had latched onto him.

He went back to Rahni's parents' room where Rahni had let him sleep. She had simply said that it didn't feel right for her to sleep in there despite the lure of a king-size double bed.

John decided that he wanted to go for a run, and reached for his watch and joggers. Sitting on the bed, he put his watch between his teeth and pulled on his shoes. He stood up and headed out into the hall where Rahni was stacking the dry towels in the linen cupboard.

"I'm going for a run up to the park," he said putting his watch on.

"OK," Rahni said as she stacked more towels in the cupboard. "But remember that it's _your_ turn to cook tonight."

"Yeah, yeah," John replied, ruffling her hair as he passed in a way that he knew she would hate. He could feel her eyes burning holes in his back as he headed to the front door.

He looked at his watch 09:53.

Wait a minute; that wasn't right. Looking at the clock on the wall, he saw that it was 14:46. Shaking his head, John realized that there had been a difference in times between Rahni's universe and his own. But as John flicked through the settings, he remembered that he had already changed the time after he had come through the portal. But it had been around about 9:40 when he had changed it. John looked at the date on the digital display. It was from two months ago! And the seconds were…

"Rahni!" John all but screamed as he froze in the kitchen.

Rahni, who had finished putting the towels away and decided to go for a shower, stuck her head out of the bathroom. Still dressed, she went to John with a frown.

"What's all the hollering about?" she asked. He had his arm cradled close to his chest, and his head bent over it. "What's wrong?"

John turned to her, and held his watch out to her. She looked at it and raised her eyebrows.

"Look at it," he instructed.

"Its a few hours behind," she stated an amused smile on her lips.

"That's not funny! Look at the seconds."

Rahni sighed and watched the seconds tick on the display. Except…

"They're not changing…"

"Exactly."

Rahni looked up at John. "Well, this is a bit of a problem."

John gave her an aspirated look. "It wasn't on that time when I changed it the first time."

"How long ago was that?"

"Two months ago!"

Rahni's eyes widened at this news. Then she frowned, thinking hard. "OK, let's think about this. You brought that watch through with you. And your universe _was_ about 12 hours ahead." She said all this slowly, mulling it over as she talked. "What if, and I'm only guessing here, what if time in your reality progresses faster than here. And your watch is still connected to it." Rahni began to pace the kitchen. Rahni shook her head.

"I'm a little overwhelmed here," she gasped. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. To be entirely honest, I am way over my head here."

John snorted. "So am I."

"Well, all we need is a little time to work this out. Just to sit own and think it over." Rahni wandered over to the sofa and sat down.

John frowned. She looked like she was either thinking hard or in shock. Probably both. He had seen that look on hundreds of faces. Mostly pilots and soldiers during his time in Afghanistan. He sat down in the chair across from her and watched her as she tapped her finger on her chin, something he had seen her do as she sorted out the bills.

She looked up at him, a twinkle in her eyes. John looked at her expectantly, hoping for an explanation soon.

"Ok," she began. "Do you remember what I told you about the Quantum Mirror and alternate realities?" John nodded.

Rahni had explained to him the events that had happened in his universe with SG-1 and the Quantum Mirror a few days after his strange arrival. She also explained that there were an infinite number of them, one springing from every choice he made. Every time he came to a fork in the road, that reality would spit into two separate ones, two versions of him heading down a road each. In a way it confused him, but in another way, it made perfect sense.

"Like _Sliding Doors_?" he had asked. Rahni had been surprised that he had ever seen that movie. John explained that one of his ex-girlfriends had been obsessed with it and made him watch it with her once a week.

Rahni rubbed her temples. "What I think is that we are in a sort of… pocket universe." Rahni made her hands into a spherical shape. "A kind of clusterofrealities, where they're totally unrelated to any others." She stabbed a finger at John. "You are evidence that this TV show is real, that it exists in the flesh, out there, somewhere. If that's the case, then there must be alternate SGC's out there, like it says in the show."

Rahni jumped up and began to pace in front of the coffee table. "But this one is different." She turned to John. "Did you ever see a TV show called _Wormhole X-Tream_?" John gave her a confused look and shook his head. "Of course, you probably didn't get much TV out at McMurdo." John shook his head again. "Well, it didn't last long, only about a season before it was cut for low ratings. Anyway, _Wormhole X-Tream_ was based on the SGC. A... man on Earth had gotten insider information about the SGC and decided it was great for a TV show. Well, it's kinda the same here, 'cept there's no SGC to copy off. The idea for the show is completely original."

Rahni was pacing again and becoming increasingly frustrated, as the situation was becoming increasingly harder to piece together.

"I'm sure that this universe is much the same as any other, splitting and dividing as we make choices. But your group of universes is different to mine. All though they are very similar there are huge differences. Yours having a Stargate, the Goa'uld, the Ancients, and an SGC. But mine doesn't. In yours you exist as people, in mine, you're actors. There also seems to be a time variation."

Rahni stopped talking here, still pacing and chewing her bottom lip. She fiddled with a ring on her finger; one John knew her mother had given her.

"What are you getting at here?" John asked, breaking the silence.

Rahni sat down across from him again. She motioned to his watch. "Your watch, John, is an indication of how much faster time is traveling here. It means that you may have only been gone for a few hours, or several minutes."

"But I've been here for weeks."

Rahni smiled at him. "Exactly."

* * *

John was now jogging around the park not far from the house. He had told Rahni that he needed time to think about it all.

Rahni's voice rang in his head. _It means that you may have only been gone for a few hours_… The number of times he woke in the middle of the night dreaming of Atlantis and the Wraith dart that had flown over the city the day he accidentally left were too many to count. Thinking that because he was no longer there everything had gone south, and that Atlantis could possibly be destroyed by the Wraith kept him awake at night until the incredibly early hours of the morning. This had also forced Rahni to add numerous tins of coffee to the shopping list.

But now, with the thought that he could have been gone for only a few hours everything had changed. If he was lucky, he could go back now and nothing would have changed. His friends would still be the same, Atlantis would still be there. And Elizabeth…

John exhaled deeply as he thought about her. He was having an increasing number of dreams about her. About her face, her hair, her skin, all grey and aged like the Elder Weir they found in the Stasis Pod in Atlantis, her eyes filled with pain and fear as a Wraith stood over her his hand attached to her chest, sucking the life from her body –

John shook his head to clear the image from his mind, and powered on through the park. Everything would be fine, he told himself as he slowed at the water fountain in the middle of the park. He stretch as two women, one with a stroller, walked passed. They looked at him with pleased eyes, and John nodded to them. They turned to one another, giggling. John rolled his eyes and headed the opposite direction, back towards Rahni's place. He had never quite gotten used to life on Earth again, but had decided to keep fit for when he got back home. He was no used to anyone as an unfit soldier in a war.

He also knew it was a safe neighborhood, but he still kept his 9mm under his pillow at night. Old habits die hard.

* * *

When he got back to the house, Rahni was in the kitchen washing the dishes.

"Hey."

"Hey, have a good run?"

John smiled. She asked him that every day, but John never answered. He didn't need to. He had realized that it was a rhetorical question after the first week. Everytime he had answered she would hide a smirk. In a way, he was glad to hear it everyday.

Slipping off his running shoes at the door, he grabbed a bottle of cold water from the fridge, and downed most of it. He re-filled it, placed it back in the refrigerator, then went for a shower before he cooked dinner.

Two hourslater, they sat at the table eating large spinach and meat pies, something John had found in Rahni's mothers vast cook book library. They chatted about general things, and about alternate universes, until John was sick of hearing those words. They cleaned up after dinner and put the dishwasher on, before Rahni buried herself in paper work, as she did every Sunday night. John watched the movie of the month.

The dishwasher clunked to a stop, and Rahni got up and stretched. She walked over to the dishwasher and opened it to allow the dishes to dry properly. Rahni turned and grabbed a mug from the over-head cupboards above the stove. She grabbed the kettle off the bench and took it to the sink to fill it when she stepped in a puddle of water in the floor. She couldn't remember ever spilling water on the floor. Maybe it was John when he was cooking and forgot to clean it up. She was always cleaning up something after him.Sometimes she felt like his mother.She went to the linen closet and grabbed a town and mopped up the water. She then put on the kettle and made her self a cup of coffee.

John finished his movie and said good night. Rahni tidied up the paperwork an hour later and headed to her own room. Neither of them saw the puddle of water in the kitchen until the next morning.

* * *

AN: bad ending, I know. But I hope you liked the chap. Bit of babbling and a bit of back story. This one will have a follow up, but not for a few chapters yet. Please R&R! 


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